Contractor failing to clean up after job raises CQ man's ire

IAN Smythe is spitting chips after spending over an hour shovelling away the debris spilt from next door into his yard, leftover by a messy contractor.

For the last eight years, retiree Mr Smythe, 67 and his wife Caroline have lived happily Buxton Drive, Gracemere until their neighbour decided to build a shed.

Mr Smythe initially questioned council whether it was acceptable for the shed to be situated so close to his property boundary but it was the mess leftover on his property from the building process, that had him seeing red.

"My complaint is about all the rubbish they pushed through the fence into my yard which I've had to clean up and down the front, because they had excess gravel, they've just gone and thrown it over the footpath,” Mr Smythe said.

"They've extended it about a third of a metre over my lawn, covering my lawn and even a fire hydrant.”

He was disgusted that the contractor who was unwilling to cart away the left over material used to prepare a pad for the shed and would instead opt to spread it across his yard.

MESS LEFT BEHIND: Gracemere resident Ian Smyth wants the contractor working on a neighbours shed who left the mess to come back and remove it from his property.Chris Ison ROK190418cmess2

The retiree was appreciative that a concreter came across and uncovered his hydrant but estimated that there was three to four inches of gravel were still spread across his property and front gutter,

"If you're a good worker, you should clean up after yourself,” Mr Smythe fumed.

"It's just laziness on the contractors behalf.”

The situation was complicated by the fact that the neighbouring house was a rental property and Mr Smythe was unable to contact the actual property owner to get him to send back the tradie at fault.

Mr Smythe had struggled to get the council to do anything the situation saying that after he reported the situation to them, they told him it wasn't illegally dumped and it was simply "spillage”.

Rockhampton Region Councillor Ellen Smith, Chair of the Planning and Regulatory Committee said, "The customer has not lodged this matter with Council, and we would encourage him to do so if he requires Council's assistance.”

"As always, any of our residents who need Council's support can contact us directly over the phone, over an email, or at one of our Customer Service centres. We can then investigate and take any appropriate action,” she said.

Mr Smythe disputed council's response quoting a reference number he received from getting into contact.

Attempts to contact the tenants, the owner or to establish it a real estate agency was looking after the property have been unsuccessful.